Spider-Woman
Spider-Woman Pyramids of Terror Part 1
Clockwise from bottom: Jessica Drew, Julia Carpenter, Charlotte Witter, and Mattie Franklin, along with Madame Web.Spider-Woman vol. 3, #1. Cover art by Bart Sears.
Spider-Woman is the codename of several fictional characters in comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history
Marvel Comics‘ then-publisher Stan Lee said in 1978, shortly after Spider-Woman’s debut in Marvel Spotlight #32 (Feb. 1977) and the start of the character’s 50-issue self-titled series (cover-dated April 1978 – June 1983), that the character originated because,
I suddenly realized that some other company may quickly put out a book like that and claim they have the right to use the name, and I thought we’d better do it real fast to copyright the name. So we just batted one quickly, and that’s exactly what happened. I wanted to protect the name, because it’s the type of thing [where] someone else might say, ‘Hey, why don’t we put out a Spider-Woman; they can’t stop us.’ … You know, years ago we brought out Wonder Man, and [DC Comics] sued us because they hadWonder Woman, and … I said okay, I’ll discontinue Wonder Man. And all of a sudden they’ve got Power Girl [after Marvel had introduced Power Man]. Oh, boy. How unfair.
Following that initial Spider-Woman series, three more followed. Volume two was a miniseries published from November 1993 through February 1994; volume three was published from July 1999 through December 2000; and volume four, featuring Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman, was published from November 2009 through May 2010.
Spider-Woman #1 (April 1978)
Featuring the Jessica Drew version of the character. Art by Joe Sinnott.
Spider-Women
Jessica Drew, the original Spider-Woman, who left the role in the early 1980s. As of the late 2000s, she has returned to it. This version of the character starred in her own animated TV series in 1979 (which is not to be confused with the similarly named Web Woman animated series of the same time period).
- Julia Carpenter, a former member of the superhero teams the Avengers and Omega Flight, who becomes Arachne and the second Madame Web.
- Mattie Franklin, who briefly impersonated Spider-Man before receiving her own short-lived comics series and appeared in the 2007 Loners miniseries.
- Charlotte Witter, a supervillain who used the name.
- Veranke, queen of the shape-shifting extraterrestrial race the Skrulls, who impersonated Jessica Drew over a long period of time and was a founding member of the superhero team the New Avengers.
Other versions
- An unrelated earlier “Spider-Woman” was published by Harry “A” Chesler‘s Dynamic Comics in 1944. She was a non-superpowered crime-fighter named Helen Goddard and made her first and only appearance in the Golden Agecomic book Major Victory #1.
- Another “Spider-Woman” (who was non-canonical character, Valerie the Librarian) appeared in the live-action, recurring skit “Spidey Super Stories” on the 1970s PBS children’s television series ‘The Electric Company, on which Spider-Man appeared. She also appeared as Spider-Woman in the spin-off comic book series Spidey Super Stories #11 (August 1975). She had no superpowers.
- In the 1981 episode The Triumph of the Green Goblin from the Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends animated series, Firestar (Angelica Jones) dresses as the Jessica Drew version of Spider-Woman at a costume party. The episode was adapted in the comic book Spider-Man & His Amazing Friends #1 (December 1981). Similarly, Spidey Super Stories #56 (January 1982) features Mary Jane Watson dressed as the Jessica Drew version of Spider-Woman at a costume party. Both stories feature Peter Parker wearing Halloween costume versions of his traditional Spider-Man costume to the parties, as well as the Green Goblin interrupting both parties.
- Spider-Woman (portrayed by Mary Jane Watson as a ninja of the Spider-clan) is an alternate version of the character in the Marvel Mangaverse reality.
- Another version of Mary Jane as Spider-Woman is featured in the Exiles series.
